Max Grässli (4 March 1902 – 29 June 1985) was a Swiss diplomat. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Grässli was the Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of Switzerland, a member of the Swiss legation in Washington DC. In that capacity, he passed official communiques back and forth between the warring governments of the United States and Japan, including the Japanese announcement of 10 August 1945 regarding acceptance of the

Potsdam Declaration The Potsdam Declaration, or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, was a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S. Truman, Uni ...

. Grässli was born in Werdenberg, Switzerland. In 1930, he began working for the Swiss

Federal Department of Foreign Affairs The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA, german: Eidgenössisches Departement für auswärtige Angelegenheiten, french: Département fédéral des affaires étrangères, it, Dipartimento federale degli affari esteri, rm, ), so name ...

at the legation in Paris.Biography of Max Grässli. Swiss Archive of Contemporary HistoryGoogle German-to-English translation
After World War II, he served in the Swiss diplomatic missions to Japan, the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, and Sweden. In 1966, he prepared a report on behalf of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

on the economic significance of the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...

.Bilateral relations between Switzerland and Panama
Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grassli, Max Swiss diplomats 1902 births 1985 deaths Swiss people of World War II Swiss expatriates in the United States